Many celebrities become the faces of charity organizations towards a particular cause. Supermodel Jessica White wants the world to know that she didn’t just slap her name onto her Angel Wings Foundation, whose purpose is to give help to sexually abused women. On Sunday (May 29), Miss White hosted a dinner at Georgica in East Hampton in honor of the foundation where she opened up to the audience about her own experiences as an abused child:

“I was sexually abused as a child, and the work that my foundation does is not going to end sexual abuse, but it will definitely raise the awareness and give room for other women and girls to come forward and begin the healing process,” White said. “This is personal to me, this is not something that I went and slapped my name on.”

Proceeds from the dinner went to UNICEF’s “City of Joy” Program, which supports abused women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She talked more about her experiences in an exclusive interview with E! News. The highlights below:

“I was 14 years old, I never talked about who my abuser was,” she told E! “It was my brother-in-law, my sister’s ex-husband. For the first time I realized I kept it a secret for so long, but why when people weren’t protecting me?” she said. “At 17, I told my older sister and asked her not to say anything, to not tear my family apart.”

“I hated going home, I had holes in my wall, it was the worst situation that a child could ever be in,” she said. “It was a very dark situation that I came from. But God used something very evil into something every powerful and beautiful. I don’t want any other young girl to feel like it’s their fault. The majority of the time it’s caused by someone that you know.”

“This is my mission in life, I’ve actually lived it,” she said. “When you think about that, you see why I’m very passionate about it. We may not be able to stop sexual abuse but we can minimize the stress intake. How I feel today, I truly believe if we team up and we can stop sexual abuse, we can prevent some pedophile from taking some girl’s innocence.”

She also revealed that she is collaborating with Gabrielle Union and other women on a YouTube campaign to support Angel Wings. Another interesting fact: Jessica is working on a music career, reportedly with some people from Rihanna’s team.